Here’s your first official look at the Niner RIP9 RDO’s new Licorice Black color scheme!

We’ve got one in for long term testing and will be putting up some first impressions once we’re back from Sea Otter Classic. For now, here’s a little gallery and a couple of notes. Plus, we put this one and the original Rally Blue one with SRAM XX1 on the scale. Click on through for lots of pics and actual weights…

The entire frame is a deep gloss black save for two sections that were masked to show the carbon fiber. One’s on the bottom of the downtube…

…the other’s on the seatstays. We’re happy to see the brake hose guides brought slightly under the stay for better leg clearance.

Another big improvement from the JET9 RDO is the earlier exit for the rear shift cable. No more running it under the bottom bracket and around the lower linkage.

Comments

Tony - 04/10/13 - 9:16pm

The seat angle on the fist picture looks really bad. Way too slack.

K11 - 04/10/13 - 9:18pm

another asian made frame. who cares.

Effective - 04/10/13 - 9:24pm

@Tony, the seat tube is kinked like that to make room for movement of the rear wheel during suspension compression and to allow for shorter chainstays. If you imagine a line from the seatpost collar to the bottom bracket, that’s the effective seat tube angle. The Giant Trance X 29er has a similar design.

yesplease - 04/10/13 - 10:13pm

Me, I care. Nice bike Niner.

MissedThePoint - 04/10/13 - 10:20pm

Was wondering what totally unridden bike that was in the Thomson dropper post article, with the gigantic pivots.

Vectorbug - 04/10/13 - 10:21pm

Another bike made by the absolute best at manipulating carbon.

Morgan - 04/10/13 - 10:32pm

K11 can (deleted). Probably 97% of all frames are made in asia. As long as they are being built to high standards, I really don’t care where they are made. Sweet bike Niner! Wish I had a some extra dough for another bike.

truman - 04/10/13 - 10:42pm

Are these frames Made to high standards? I have seen and heard about far too may niner frames that have broken or Have creaking problems to put trust into them.

Diesel - 04/10/13 - 10:53pm

Took the words right out of my mouth Morgan!!

“I’ve seen and heard”…”I know a guy who…”

I just love these people judging with no firsthand experience. Niner makes great frames with no bigger fail rate than any other manufacturer.

Time to start saving my money to buy this Asian made beauty!!

Brandon - 04/10/13 - 11:07pm

As a Niner dealer, I’ve had my hands on more of their bikes than most people and I can say I’ve been thoroughly impressed with their quality. Sometimes they don’t do a great job of keeping open inventory. Sometimes I don’t like their color choices (Rally Blue comes to mind). But their quality in my experience is second to none.

I’d guess I’ve personally built about 40-50 Niners in the last 3 years for customers on top of 3 for myself. I’ve had two issues: one damaged seat stay when a bike was being shipped out west for a week of riding (UPS mangled the box) and one had some paint flake on the head tube after about 3-4 days of riding. Niner replaced both with new frames, NQA.

“I’ve seen/heard” and “I know a guy who” just doesn’t mean a whole lot to me…..

Brandon - 04/10/13 - 11:08pm

Oh, and this one looks fan-f’ing-tastic.

Brendan - 04/10/13 - 11:19pm

It’s hard to see how you could like bikes and not be at least interested in this one.

I’ve ridden Niner’s full suspension bikes a few times and really enjoyed them. Definitely good stuff! I think this one looks pretty good, too… and it’s not a bad weight, either!

Velo - 04/10/13 - 11:54pm

The readout on the red device is the price of the frame.

Pete - 04/11/13 - 8:05am

What is the warranty on a Niner? When I bought mine aluminum frame One9 a few years ago, it only had a two year warranty. That is a problem. If you are not getting a lifetime warranty on a carbon frame these days, it should be a red flag.

Like Brandon, I run a small shop that sells Niners, and I have personally built and maintained about fifty Niners over the past five years. In that time, I have had only three unsolvable issues, all three of which were likely the result of misuse, all warrantied without issue.

No bike is problem free, excpet maybe a steel framed rigid single speed, but few bikes ride as well as a Niner.

I’m back on Niner after a year on a SF100 and18 months on a Tallboyc. Was on a JET9 alloy before that. Just like the CVA better. Warranty is 5 years on the Niner carbon. IMHO, it is better to see who has a better crash replacement policy riding a carbon frame than “lifetime” warranty as you are likely to have a mfg construction issue come up the first year or two. No mfg is going to warranty a fist sized pointy rock to the down tube.

Paul - 04/11/13 - 10:31am

I have the blue one with xx1 and it is awesome. Pure bliss. Not quite as good of a climber as the Jet 9 RDO, but unstoppable downhill.

brandon - 04/11/13 - 10:36am

I had a very minor cosmetic issue on my niner carbon bike (headbadge was pulling away slightly from the carbon) and niner warrantied it without any hassle with a new frame. I don’t think it was structural personally and rode it like that for a full season but Niner graciously offered a new frame. Thanks guys at Niner.

Mike in PA - 04/11/13 - 10:40am

Re: the quality of Niner carbon. I have an Air 9 Carbon and a Jet 9 RDO as well as two Niner carbon forks (neither RDO). Just one guy’s opinion, but have nothing but great things to say about the qualitiy, the design and the durability of all the Niner bikes and products I’ve experienced since my first purchase three years ago.

Gwiz - 04/11/13 - 1:00pm

Coming from a very rocky area, how does the bike handle with that lower assembly being so far below the crank? It looks like it reaches past the actual chainring… Seems like it would contact rocks far easier than a standard set up in which the chainring takes most of the abuse? Just curious…

In the winter, I ride almost exclusively in rocky desert in Southern Utah. I’ve had a RIP 9 RDO since January – perk of the job :-). I run the bike with XX1, and have had zero issues with rock contact on the downtube. For the linkages, my skid plate does have a few marks on it, and it seems to be doing exactly the job it was designed to do.

Eric - 04/11/13 - 1:32pm

Seems heavy for bike with that spec.

ron hans erez - 04/11/13 - 3:59pm

to wieght a bike with out pedals ???

ron hans erez - 04/12/13 - 8:34am

on cometitve cyclist frame wieght 2910 gram ? is it ?

John - 12/24/13 - 5:01am

The “black licorice” color looks very nice, but also very delicate (It’s lucid). What do you think? From real is as beautiful as in the picture?

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